This is one of the world’s most prominant democracy worker. Be patient with the computer translation. It is a rare skill to write for computer translation into many languages.

This is a computer translation of a year-end Zapatista communique. One of the writers was once Subcomandante Marcos, former Zapatista leader He almost always wore a mask and was able to publicly change to avoid hero worship and provide himself with a new window for looking at the world.

The Zapatista subcommanders are quite impressed to actually see autonomy grow from living a new story. Zapatistas are knowingly applying Albert Einstein’s social thought about visualizing a new story and then living it until a crytical mass accepts the new story over the old.

At that point, the new story becomes reality.

This is not magic. This is physics. Did Einstein really say that? It sounds like he might have. (Though my understanding of his math and physics is entirely poetic).

Humanity writes a new story rather than confont the monster hydra.

Distributed intelligence does not threaten existing bad government. Instead, it makes wealth in balance with Earth that is so huge it causes billionaires to feel greed, but they are left behind in the dust of happier, healthier and stronger nations that are not impressed by tawdry billions.

Yesterday night, I told them about the interplanetary mess that had unleashed the question, "Why is the flower that color, why does it have that shape, why does it smell?

Ok, I got over that "interplanetary" thing. I should have said: the disarray that in the microcosm of Zapatismo had provoked the question made by the young Rosita to Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés.

Although I think it is obvious, there is no need to clarify that the answer that the SubMoy gave the young Zapatista was the same that, perhaps, I do not know, it is probable, it is a suppository, it has fueled the advance of science from its Beginnings: "I do not know".

Now I think the young woman must have known that was the answer, but she hoped that SubMoy would understand that there was a bigger question inside the flower.

SubMoy, now we know because we are here, in this meeting, I knew that the answer "I do not know" was not only insufficient, but it would be useless if it did not lead to other questions.

Now he will talk about what is, as it were, the context of the question ... and its answer.

It is my turn now to briefly tell you something about the prehistory of that question and that answer.

The arts and sciences before the beginning of the uprising, within the ezetaelene, had a very small universe and a brief history: both science and arts had a motive, a direction, an imposed reason: war.

First in the guerrilla camps, then in the barracks and later in the communities, the arts were limited to music, poetry and some drawing and painting, all with revolutionary messages exclusively. Of course, it was not uncommon for songs of love and desamores, corridos, rancheras, and even some ballad of Juan Gabriel to burst forth, but that was in the underground in the clandestinity.

The cinema or the cinematography had like exclusive room or "vip", our imagination. One of the insurgents always told us the same movie, but he could find a way to change it every time, or to mix it with others. That's how we saw the original and several "remakes" of "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee in the only role, because the company spent hours explaining the movements and blows. This continued until, with a small plant of light and a heavy and cramped 16-millimeter projector, we saw a Vietnamese film that I thought was called "Link Point" or something, and that, of course, was only in the original language , So with imagination we put dialogues in Spanish and we made another film of the original film. I'm not sure, but I think that's called "artistic intervention".

I call attention to this, because I believe it was the first time that the sciences and the arts converged in a Zapatista camp. And by the sciences I do not mean the portable generator and the projector, but the popcorn, which someone was good to include in sending the device and film.

Of course, we get stuck with corn popcorn to the cry of "eat today or die tomorrow", and the next day almost the slogan is met: from dawn, with a collective diarrhea, the entire insurgent battalion left the place as if a herd of Boars would have settled there. We consoled ourselves later, thinking it was a sign of bacteriological warfare. Moral: be careful with the slogans.

The contact with the peoples, extended the limited horizon: in the celebrations, the compas established schedules for "the cultural program", they said, and "for the party". Thus, in a schedule that was shortened with the years, poems were recited, thoughts were read and songs were sung, all of struggle. Gradually, "the party" was extending its duration and quality. In that time was where they danced and sang what was fashionable at that time. The music we say "commercial", in turn, began to be displaced by local production. First, by changing the lyrics of the songs; Then composing music as well.

The dances changed: from the facing ranks, to the dance of couples. Originally, in the dances of the towns, two lines were placed: one of women and, opposite, one of men. This had its raison d'être: with the unfolded line of women, the mammals could control their daughters, and see if they were escaping or kept in the continuous rolling of "The colored bun." Later, little by little and after heated assemblies, couples were allowed to dance, albeit with the same rhythm. But the line weighed, so it was common to see a couple dancing, but with her looking to one side and him looking to the opposite side. The theater, or "sign", was very sporadic. The drawings and paintings of the mountain murals were moved to the communities, but the themes remained.

If it seems that the artistic activity was weak, the scientist was practically null (because the book of Isaac Asimov, which the deceased carried in his backpack, does not count as science). For the contact with nature, we used the knowledge of the communities, that is, we limited ourselves to knowing facts, without knowing the explanation or, explaining them according to the stories and legends that circulated in the communities.

For example, the rainy season and the sowing stages. There was empirical data indicating that it was going to rain or not, and statistically worked. In mountain camps, for example, when mosquitoes increased in numbers and aggressiveness, it meant that it was going to rain. Of course, we also had barometers and altimeters, but the mosquitoes were more accurate. If they had asked us then what the relationship was between the mosquitoes and the rain, we would have answered "I do not know", but we would not have gone further, and we knew that what it was necessary to put the plastic roofs or hurry to reach the village or Camp, and not doing scientific research.

The most scientific thing to do was to calculate energy and bullet trajectories, material resistance (because you had to know where to protect yourself from enemy shots), align telescopic sights, make explosive devices, and "land navigation" with the use of maps , Altimeters and the clismeter, for which it was necessary to study the basics of trigonometry, algebra and calculus. We were about to learn to use the sextant, to be able to orient ourselves at night, but we did not get to that much. And it was not necessary, because the people of the towns knew the terrain so well that they did not need any machine to orient themselves. And they could "predict" natural phenomena from others, or from habits and customs.

The world was then inhabited by magical characters, with Sombreron and Xpaquinté traversing the royal roads, bites and paths of loss, and sitting with us, us, in the insurgent camps of the mountains of the Mexican southeast.

In medicine two fundamental methods were applied. As we did not know of the existence of the cure with quartz, biomagnetism or similar things with equal scientific rigor, then we resorted to imposed suggestion or autosuggestion. Not infrequently we did not have medicines, if we had a fever, we said and we repeated: "I do not have fever, everything is in my head". It will make you laugh perhaps, but the late SupMarcos said that he faced several cases of salmonellosis with this method. "And did it work?" We asked him on that occasion. He responded with his usual modesty: "Look at me, I am alive and more beautiful than ever." Well, that was before we killed him.

When we did have medicine, we used the scientific method of "trial and error". That is, someone became sick, we gave him a medicine, if he did not heal, a different one, and so, until we hit him or the disease, surely bored of the method, yielded.

Another scientific method of healing was the so-called "shotgun". If someone had symptoms of an infection, we would give him a broad-spectrum antibiotic. It was almost always cured and, of course, chemically pure, with the minimum to survive until the next infection.

Years later, according to the deceased, the medical treatments he dictated were based on simple statistics: in mountain, such and such symptoms are cured with such drugs in x% of cases; If in a troop of X number of combatants, so many become ill with such symptoms, there is x% probability that it is the same disease.

A mountain anecdote, also counted by the late SupMarcos years ago, may serve to contrast with the now we show you: the deceased was telling that, in an exploration deep in the Lacandon Jungle, an insurgent section of infantry was far from the camp Base, being forced to spend the night without more shelter than the tops of the trees and the leaves of the plants; They made a bonfire to see if they could roast a nautical snake that was the only thing they had been able to hunt. The SupMarcos then was not "sup", but lieutenant infantry insurgent and was in command of that military unit.

As was customary at that time, when night fell at last from the trees and sat next to the insurgents, with the shadows they also went down to sit by the fire, all sorts of stories, stories and legends that, among other things, The mission of mitigate hunger and dry the clothes sweat and rain had soaked. The then lieutenant of infantry, stayed away and only listened to what the troops talked about.

One of the new ones had happened to him that, when walking by the route of loss, the friction of the leaves of the plant called La'aj, or Ortiga, had caused hives in one hand and it had swelled to him. Between aching and complaining, the constable asked another fighter why or what had that plant that was so damaging. The veteran, feeling obliged to educate the new, replied: "Look, my friend, of course I tell you that only God and the little leaf know it."

Perhaps because of all this I tell you, the late SupMarcos, when he was the Zapatista spokesman, abounded and resulted in legends, stories and anecdotes more concerned with explanations of reality linked to the ancestral culture. The tales of Old Antonio, for example.

If the deceased was a window to look at the zapatismo of that time, and now it is Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, it is not that he has changed only the window, also what he sees and hears through that window. Today's zapatismo in the communities, is quantitatively and qualitatively different, let alone to the one of 30 years ago, mainly to the one of the last 10-12 years, that is the period in which the girl who calls herself "Zapatista Defense."

By this I want to tell you that if the children of 25-30 years ago were born in the preparations for the uprising and those of 15-20 years are born in resistance and rebellion; Those of the last 10-15 years are born in a process of autonomy already consolidated, with new characteristics, some of which, among which is the need of Science, will speak to Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, to whom early the word ...

Good evening, brothers and sisters, fellow companions.

The science we are talking about here, we, the Zapatistas, want science for life. Just as the sub Galeano told you, nothing more is to say nothing more, I will not explain to you any more of that, the science yes we studied it also when we were then in the mountain, in the preparation. Since we went out to apply science, that is, war, killing and dying, our comrades of the peoples, bases of support, they and they told us otherwise how to wage war without losing the principles of what We want, then we, the combatants and combatants, how good it was that we recognized that there is something inside our comrades, or peoples, and then we start there to learn, we begin to understand and we begin to know that The army, the army of the rich and the army of the poor who fight, is exclusive, because there does not fight all men and women and children, and what our colleagues and our partners raised is to fight together To achieve what we want, and we were told that then in that the weapon that we must fight is resistance and rebellion, as it is that then we do not want bad government, the bad system, it is about That then we have to reject all the ways of how they deceive us, and then we, the combatants, the insurgents, the insurgents, we learned how that is, how that must be done, then, us, We understood how to fight together, together, as in the past communities live together, collective can be said, there the system, bad government now, try to divide it, but still has not been able, the same communities For example, in some communities there are several political parties, or there are several religions, but they are in a community, if in that community is invaded a piece of their land, by another community, that invaded community immediately come together, They forget what they are, which is divided into several political parties or various religions, where it works, where it does not erase what it means to be common, community. From there, we began to understand what they were saying, what our comrades, comrades, bases of support told us, that we are going to have to fight together together. Then it was more, much better than they, they, they thought, because then not only the fighter fights, but all and all, and then, we, the fighters started to work together with them and then what happened is that Then in that struggle, in that organization was created the way you want what is sought, that is, I want to say that what the colleagues, the partners, saw that it is then necessary to put into practice, What is wanted, what is sought, then with its autonomy, with its autonomous government of our companions, began what we did not know during the time of clandestine, in our preparation, and then we understood that It is already the way of how we think that change is made, and this throughout these times that we have been during the 23 years that we are doing self-government with our communities, the truth is that then we do not have so many dead Bullets, or wounded or tortured, disappeared, of which we were first in the year 94. With these 23 years, what our colleagues showed us is that there is another way to make war on the system, that it does not die and that it does not kill itself, but that requires organization. , For that it takes work and for that you need to fight and put into practice. Now we see that with that weapon of struggle that is resistance and rebellion, the truth the system has not been able to do anything with our comrades, all have done to want to make it leave, has not been able to the system. Why, because the companions and the companions already lived it during the 23 years, of which they, they, constructed it, as well was saying the Sub Galeano, we ourselves were surprised that but if we did not dream, but if that We did not see, then, because all that the companions have achieved, is through their thinking, it is through seeing their needs, what is needed and thinking what to do after that then something has been achieved How to improve or how to follow the steps to do the good of our peoples, then. So now, the same companions, comrades, make the check between them and them, well, and the moms and dads of course encourage them, because they had not seen it, then. For example there are companions who are already, I do not know how to say, those who help doctors to pass it, like the mechanics that there goes your clamp, there goes your hammer, there goes your marro, as they are called, But the companions then now they are the ones who help the doctor to spend what he needs at the time that the doctor is doing the surgery, they already know how to handle the ultrasound device, which the doctors have already told him that then You can already say or diagnose, then, that if you already know how to read what shows the plate or the photo of what the ultrasound takes, and so many other type of device and the companions and colleagues already know how to handle, dentists, Of Papanicolau and of many other things of the health, of the area of ​​health, of laboratoristas, therefore. That we did not think that, and that then we now think and say: in 23 years of bullets we would have built that ?, and our answer from us is we would not be talking here with you now brothers, sisters, comrades, comrades, scientists , Scientific.If there had been 23 years of bullets, we would not have known then. But thanks to your way of seeing, our colleagues, here we are talking with you, then. So much so that it was the progress of our comrades, of course, had to separate from its mode of exploitation, capitalism because, or bad government to be creating them how they think their freedom, that we conquer and that we start To build on our way of understanding it then. So, this is how they now have their education, they have their agroecology, they have their community radio, they make their own exchanges of experiences, they share our colleagues, because what you want is life. Example, then, as well as the one given to us by the Sub Galeano, that we also talk to him, that is, for example, that we share, how, that one does not die, as in the case of one of the Questions, that it was given that the baby's placenta is roasted, or boiled as long as life is achieved, but that is done with a simple, a fight, there is no real study of which This is the best way then. Then as there are many generations since this has already been brought, of which the Sub Galeano said the blame of the flower is that in the Zapatista Autonomous Education that has been so far advanced, young boys and girls saw that then Have learned a lot, so what happened is that he began to ask because the son of a compa, and is the son of a company of Tercios Compa, then told his father because he finished because his elementary, his first level tell you the Comrades in the towns, then the son of the company told him, Daddy, I finished my school, but I will continue because I want to learn more, and then the Compa Tercio, who is the father, then said, son, let me see, because Is that we are still planning the second level, or the secondary school that is said, is being planned because the education we want will not learn things that will not serve if it is not needed, that is thought what they learn so that He's going to serve, said the friend to his son, and then the boy, well, that way from there, 13, 14 years old, he says: Daddy, but do not think you're going to send me here at Cideci, because in Cideci learns tailoring, shoemaking and other things, more than they can do here in the Caracol, only they need to agree to do so, said the boy to his dad. And then the chavito says what I want to learn I am what substance has the stafiate, and what is that cures that. And then the friend, but there his son is present there, because he wanted me to tell him then when and where he can learn that, then I said, let me see because I do not know. Then so surprised that I stayed, well and that good, even I stayed like that, can you learn? Then talking with the Sub Galeano says, because that corresponds to the scientists, the science, those who study science, and scientists. Then what we see is that then the generations that are coming are already seeing something else and the good thing is that they are thinking, because the chavito that I talk about is that in the Communities there is sharing as they say, as much as they say Of the three areas, that is, where comrades and companions go to exchange experiences of medicinal plants, midwives and midwives, and of bone and bones, where then the chavito heard that well of many plants that is said to cure such and No such But he does not know what it is, what substance he has, then where he learned that then. Then their own practitioners of what they do, their own knowledge of what they do so partners and peers in the villages, that is going to open as well as experiences, but also at the same time will be opening up other needs of Want to learn more then. So I believe that because then listening to what is being raised here among us, hopefully then come here to put into practice with a people, as a collective, I would give them much pleasure as well as the companions to the Companions so that they take advantage of that knowledge because with what little they have the companions and companions that is giving a ... as I will tell you, or what is being done, what are the companions are building clear They see the other brothers, sisters who are not zapatistas, or, for example, in the hospitals that have thus the companions, their autonomous hospitals, are more partisan brothers who are operated, operated there than the Zapatistas. Then there where the non-Zapatista people, partisans as we tell them, where they realize that then it is better that what the Zapatistas are doing even say it directly already, that it is much better what the Zapatistas are doing, But not only that, they give the little progress that has been made in the health of colleagues and partners but also help in guiding or doing politics because of why they are so deceived or why they are manipulated or why so Are thus dominated. So, if there is more support through science, then there will be more progress because so of the companions and the companions then, and then we want to tell them that hopefully we then actually started, now here with our Comrades and companions in the villages to which one can see that one could then have a class, there are workshops, that there are practical things because the comrades what they see thus so interesting and so important to face, therefore, the capitalist hydra Is that we must improve as well health, and we must improve as well the food, but for that we need to learn, we need science. The companions and the companions do then, but as it has been said several times that it is by means of customs and practices, that is, the test is made that you plant there the corn to see if it is going to give you, or the pumpkin, or the sweet potato , What is going to give there, because there is no study of science there, what is going to give there in that land and what gives here in this part no. It is a lot of suffering of how you live, but if you saw that there is a science, a laboratory for example, it would be different there, it is not something to prove but it is because it has a scientific study what it takes Mother earth this or is what can give here this then. So, that's the way it looks, so do the students and their companions, and then, from where this is born for which we are here, the truth is that then it is the slogan that the boy said that wants to know what the Substance and that then from there that was seen that then are the others, Zapatista Autonomous Schools that are in another need of what young people want to learn.
So, brothers, sisters, companions, companions, we invite you to join the comrades and companions to which we are forming a collective, as a collective since we are walking the Zapatistas and then we show the people of Mexico that the people, the Own people can create the way of how to live and that we do not need someone to manipulate so our wealth or that they expropriate what is ours as a people, more than we as peoples and that for that we need to be together with the people Original and with the science of scientists and the science of artists, what we are imagining, or what we are building, or that we are practicing and that we are demonstrating among ourselves that you can as the companions and support bases that without more , More than their own effort, their own resistance and their own thinking to see and create, to imagine, they have demonstrated, although they do not know to read or write, and although they do not dominate well the Spanish, but in the fact they have it, what we say Here, that the system here, the bad government because of Mexico has been put aside as and we are practicing what we think and what we believe, but we feel alone because not only nothing else that we are exploited then. The indigenous in Mexico, but the brothers and sisters are both in the countryside and in the city. But for that we need Science, how we are going to have to build the new world, then.

We need, feel the need so as well as the chavito that we talk about, that being a boy is already thinking that he wants to know, that he wants to know why the substance that has the stafiate is so important, because he hears so much in the collective Therefore, in the sharing that the companions and the companions do. So that is what we want to pose them, then we hope that we unite to create another way of seeing, another way of thinking, then imagine how we have to build a change, because it really is the change not just the name, Nor anything else of color then.

That is what it would be that we can share our companions, brothers and sisters.